Interview: MADD Crew

Slowed up on writing for Nahhhhh for a long time. It stopped being fun to write about music and felt more like work. I always said if it got to that point I would stop. However, when I heard MADD Crew I knew I wanted to find out more about the California 4-piece and how soon they would get out to the East Coast for a tour.

Lets get the routine question out of the way first: How did MADD Crew get its name

Well we’re all big fans of Hip-Hop, we actually got the name from a KRS-ONE track called mad crew. But we wanted to put our own spin on it so we added an extra D to the end of mad and turned it into a an Acronym which stands for “Mentally.Aware.Discipline.Divinity”

Musically, who are the band’s biggest influences?

As far as influences go, we have so many but what we really wanted to bring back was an early 2000’s Southern California Hardcore sound. We all grew up listening to bands like Internal affairs, More to Pride and Piece by Piece etc. but we wanted to fuse the rawness of bands like Ceremony, Eaten Alive and maybe a tad of Righteous Jams. To be honest I don’t really think we came out sounding like any of those bands as a whole but we definitely have a mixture. But yeah man as far as influence goes we really just wanted to make a sound that gave off the same energy as those bands, and it’s really not all in the instruments or vocals but the overall attitude in the lyrics and live show. We wanted something that was very outspoken that on the outside seemed to be ignorant but in reality was the complete opposite.

What is the best current trend in hardcore? What is the worst?

I don’t even know if you can call it a “trend” but as far as the BEST goes, what I’m really diggin right now is the fact that we have so many different sounds coming out, seems like kids aren’t afraid of playing whatever they want, which is great cause it keeps things fresh, I’ve always been a fan of numerous styles of hardcore, so it’s cool to see kids doing something new instead of duplicating whatever the current trending sound is. As far as the WORST trend goes, they’re so many of em haha I can’t stand that kids think buying an “original press” of a record or T-shirt validates them in any way, don’t get me wrong I have noooo problem with buying and collecting but don’t let that shit get to your head, hardcore has never been about cosmetics and I believe those things fall into that category in a strange way. Also I can’t stand the overly righteous bullshit you typically see on Twitter, it’s just hard for me to believe. I mean it sounds nice but in reality I think it’s just some kid getting a nut off of getting a retweet or a “favorite” I’m all for opinions and I really do try to understand where they’re coming from but when your opinion/complaints don’t ever translate into actions, it leads me to believe you’re full of shit, if your gonna complain about something so passionately then you should do something about it, otherwise shut up cause if it bothered you that much you’d do something about it. With that being said I encourage everybody who doesn’t like any certain aspect of hardcore to step up and try to change it. start a band, book a show, start a zine etc. just don’t sit on the computer bitching 🙂

What is the best album of 2015 so far?

Shit it’s so hard for me to pinpoint what the best release it but I’ll definitely name a couple, I was feeling that “JADED LOVE” by The Beautiful Ones, as well as this band from the Inland empire called “Relevant Anger” that band fuckin rips, they just dropped a self titled tape and I love it, if you like a fast & pissed off sound you should definitely check it out.

You’re stranded on an island. You can only take 3 albums with you. What are they?

Damn, I’d definitely take Queen’s greatest hits, gotta have some Freddy Mercury in the mix. Second, I’d choose some type of Low Rider Oldies comp, not sure which volume though. Third, I’d take Martyr AD’s – On Earth As It Is In Hell, that album is unbelievably heavy and it’s definitely a front to back album.

Loved in the hip-hop intros/outros on Act Like You Knew. If you could collab with any hip-hop artist who would it be?

It would definitely be sick to get one of The Beastie Boys on a track, seeing how they have a past in the scene, it’d be cool to get them on that “Algio E Olio” tip again, that record was sick

When can we expect new music?

We’re actually currently in the process of writing a new EP titled “Policy of Truth” we plan on releasing a promo tape for it by the end of September but the actual EP should be dropping sometime in December, latest early January but we’re aiming for a mid December release

Any plans for future tours?

We’re actually talking to our friends in Vamachara (Bandcamp) & Runamuk (Bandcamp) about doing a small west coast run later this year but we’re also planning on doing a few weeks in 2016 so we can hit the east coast, not sure when that’ll go down but we’re definitely trying to make it happen!

Shout outs

First and foremost shout out to all our friends from our hometown Corona, the Inland Empire hardcore scene, BIG shout out to NateXibalba and everybody at SOS Booking those dudes have been helping us out since we started, shout our friends in Nomads, Human Harbage, Relevant Anger, Runamuk, Vamachara, FrustratedXXX,Alpha Omega, Xibalba, Downpresser, Chula, also if you haven’t yet check out Absolute Suffering, Nine Eyes, Kept in Line, Afraid of Life, Violent Bullshit, Cease, Selfish ways and the list goes on. Last but not least thanks for taking the time to do the interview we definitely appreciate it. S/O Nahhhhh Blog!